Shopping with a Secret

I’ve got a 15 inch MacBook Pro as a laptop. After being through a string of laptops (I think 5 of them in 4 years), I’ve had this machine for 3 1/2 years. That’s got to be about 32 in laptop years. It’s a good machine and I’ve been very happy with it. But it’s time is coming. Not yet – but before too long. The screen does the long slow blink occasionally and sometimes leaves me wondering if it is coming back on.

So, I’m looking around.

While I’ve always been happy with the Apple stuff that I own, I’m not really a fanboy. We’ve got our fair share of it in the house (3 laptops and 3 ipods), but we’ve also got other goodies and gadgets. We’ve got kobo ereaders, an android tablet and now an android phone. I’ve never been deeply invested enough to go towards Apple tv or anything like that. But one thing that I’ve always appreciated with my Mac stuff is that it just works. I know when I buy a piece of software, 99% of the time its going to run – the first time. The machines rarely break down and combined with the time machine wireless port I’ve got, I know my stuff is pretty safe.

But I’m starting to have trouble with the cost of it all.

When I first started using Macs I was prepared to pay a premium. The computers were good and had a lot of features that others didn’t. This was back in the day when a machine with a DVD player in it was something special. The hardware was solid and I could push it pretty hard. But computing is changing. I’m not a gamer. Beyond basic video and photo editing, I’m not a graphics guy. Most of the work that I do is done online. So, although chipsets and graphics cards have gotten stronger and faster, I don’t really need them.

Which is why I’m thinking of leaving my Macs behind. It seems wasteful to pay $2 000 for a new MacBook Pro when I can get a decent Dell with Ubuntu installed on it for about $500. As I’ve gone deeper and deeper into working with things like WordPress, I’ve gained a deep appreciation for open source software and am constantly amazed by the depth of the communities involved. Which is why I’m looking at Ubuntu.

But here’s the secret part of this post: I’m really not much of a geek. If your computer (or mine for that matter) is broke down – I probably can’t fix it. And this is where moving to Ubuntu scares me. I’ve got little Linux experience and get frightened every time I visit a Linux website and find instructions that involve compiling software and doing some coding just to get things up and running. I just want things to work. Like all of you (and like Dean hates to hear us say), I’m incredibly busy. I don’t have time for my computer not to be working.

And this is of course just what Apple wants to hear me say. I’m locked into an Apple ecosystem. I’ve got an ipod and there is no Linux version of itunes. I’m wondering about getting my photos and videos off of this machine on to something different. If I bought a new Apple, one of the first screens that comes up when you turn it on asks if you want to transfer data from your old machine – how easy is that!

So I’m looking around, doing some shopping and some thinking. Its turned into a philosophical debate in my head about the value of open source software and the freedom to migrate your data where you want it. If you’ve got any Linux experience you can share with me, or any advice about migrating from Mac to Linux, I’d be interested in hearing your story.

3 thoughts on “Shopping with a Secret”

Having flirted with the very move you describe for years, I finally did so myself some time back, first directly on my Macbook Pro (dual-boot) and eventually on a couple of Dell Vostro V131s, which I have been very happy with. The key thing to keep in mind, as you alluded to in your post, is that the community is not only huge and deep, but passionately there for you when you are ready to make your move.

As for the Apple “ecosystem”, you are not so locked in as you might think – many open-source alternatives are not only available, but also highly functional, competitive, and viable alternatives. Shotwell is a excellent replacement for iPhoto, Banshee will give you your iTunes fix, complete with iDevice syncing, Openshot takes care of your iMovie needs in a more flexible/capable package. And the rest, like Firefox, Chrome, Google Earth, LibreOffice, etc. you already know, since they are cross-platform apps. Add tens-of-thousands of free apps, easily installable from the Ubuntu Software Center (Ubuntu’s app store), and you will find yourself in an excellent position to do amazing work with far less expensive hardware.

Unfortunately, there is no all-in-one “migrate my data” app for Ubuntu, however Shotwell and Banshee will import your existing libraries quite easily. Keep in mind that any DRM’d content that you may have purchased from Apple won’t play (although it will import, interestingly enough). For music, this shouldn’t be a big problem since most Apple content has been DRM-free for years, but you might want to check your library and update any older content to iTunes+ first (to remove the DRM). See Apple’s FAQ for details on that process.

What I did to get my Macbook data was pulled my Macbook’s hard drive and put it in an external USB enclosure (like this one), then plugged it in to my V131 and imported/copied. I imported into Shotwell from the Mac drive, so that it could reorganize my photos they way it wanted to in it’s directory. You can do the same for Banshee, but make sure you open the preferences and set the “Copy files to media folders when importing” option, or it will just leave the original files in place on the Mac drive and add them to its media list. The rest you can just copy straight.

Of course, I also recommend ubermix as all of the “dirty work” of setting up Ubuntu has been done for you, all of the applications mentioned above are pre-installed, and it has a convenient “safety-net” reset function that enables you to experiment freely and easily undo anything you might try, should you decide you don’t like it.

Hope this helps. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions or need help

Jim I appreciate you stopping by and leaving such a detailed well thought out comment. My experience with the WordPress community has me prepared for being part of the Linux community as well. Thanks for leaving this as a resource. And don’t worry – I’ll be in touch. Thanks again.